Installing the Admin SDK

This document shows you how to install the Identity Platform Admin SDK. The Admin SDK lets you manage Identity Platform from a server environment, and perform administrator actions such as migrating users, setting custom claims, and configuring identity providers.

Before you begin

To use the Admin SDK, you need a server app running one of the following:

Language Minimum framework version
Node.js Node.js 8.13.0+
Java Java 7+ (Java 8+ recommended)
Python Python 2.7+ or 3.4+ (3.4+ recommended)
Go Go 1.9+
C# .NET Framework 4.5+ or .NET Core 1.5+

The following table lists the features supported by each SDK language:

Feature Node.js Java Python Go C#
Custom token minting
Verifying ID tokens
Managing users
Controlling access with custom claims
Revoking refresh tokens
Importing users
Managing session cookies
Generating email action links
Managing SAML and OIDC provider configurations
Multi-tenancy support

Additionally, you'll need a service account and key for your project:

Console

Create a service account:

  1. In the Cloud console, go to the Create service account page.

    Go to Create service account
  2. Select your project.

  3. In the Service account name field, enter a name. The Cloud console fills in the Service account ID field based on this name.

    In the Service account description field, enter a description. For example, Service account for quickstart.

  4. Click Create and continue.

  5. To provide access to your project, grant the following role(s) to your service account: Project > Owner.

    In the Select a role list, select a role.

    For additional roles, click Add another role and add each additional role.

  6. Click Continue.

  7. Click Done to finish creating the service account.

    Do not close your browser window. You will use it in the next step.

Create a service account key:

  1. In the Cloud console, click the email address for the service account that you created.
  2. Click Keys.
  3. Click Add key, and then click Create new key.
  4. Click Create. A JSON key file is downloaded to your computer.
  5. Click Close.

gcloud

Set up authentication:

  1. Create the service account. Replace NAME with a name for the service account: 

    gcloud iam service-accounts create NAME

  2. Grant roles to the service account. Run the following command once for each of the following IAM roles: roles/owner: 

    gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID --member="serviceAccount:NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com" --role=ROLE

    Replace the following:

    • NAME: the name of the service account
    • PROJECT_ID: the project ID where you created the service account
    • ROLE: the role to grant

  3. Generate the key file: 

    gcloud iam service-accounts keys create FILE_NAME.json --iam-account=NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com

    Replace the following:

    • FILE_NAME: a name for the key file
    • NAME: the name of the service account
    • PROJECT_ID: the project ID where you created the service account

Provide authentication credentials to your application code by setting the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS. This variable applies only to your current shell session. If you want the variable to apply to future shell sessions, set the variable in your shell startup file, for example in the ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile file.

Linux or macOS

export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="KEY_PATH"

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.

For example:

export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/home/user/Downloads/service-account-file.json"

Windows

For PowerShell:

$env:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="KEY_PATH"

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.

For example:

$env:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="C:\Users\username\Downloads\service-account-file.json"

For command prompt:

set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=KEY_PATH

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.

Installing the SDK

Node.js

The Node.js Admin SDK is available on npm. If you don't already have a package.json file, create one using npm init. Next, install the npm package and save it to your package.json:

npm install firebase-admin --save

To use the module in your app, require it from any JavaScript file:

var admin = require('firebase-admin');

If you are using ES2015, you can import the module instead:

import * as admin from 'firebase-admin';

Java

The Java Admin SDK is published to the Maven central repository. To install the library, declare it as a dependency in your build.gradle file:

dependencies {
  implementation 'com.google.firebase:firebase-admin:6.11.0'
}

If you use Maven to build your app, you can add the following dependency to your pom.xml:

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.google.firebase</groupId>
  <artifactId>firebase-admin</artifactId>
  <version>6.11.0</version>
</dependency>

Python

The Python Admin SDK is available using pip.

pip install --user firebase-admin

Go

Use the go get utility to install the Go Admin SDK:

go get firebase.google.com/go

C#

Install the .NET Admin SDK using the .NET package manager:

Install-Package FirebaseAdmin -Version 1.9.1

Alternatively, install it using the dotnet command-line utility:

dotnet add package FirebaseAdmin --version 1.9.1

Or, you can install it by adding the following package reference entry to your .csproj file:

<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference Include="FirebaseAdmin" Version="1.9.1" />
</ItemGroup>

Initializing the SDK using default credentials

Add the following code to your server app to initialize the Admin SDK using the default credentials:

Node.js

// Initialize the default app
var admin = require('firebase-admin');
var app = admin.initializeApp({
  credential: admin.credential.applicationDefault()
});

Java

FirebaseApp.initializeApp();
FirebaseAppSnippets.java

Python

default_app = firebase_admin.initialize_app()
index.py

Go

app, err := firebase.NewApp(context.Background(), nil)
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("error initializing app: %v\n", err)
}
init.go

C#

FirebaseApp.Create();

FirebaseAppSnippets.cs

Initializing the SDK with a service account key file

You can also manually specify a service account key file:

Node.js

// Initialize the default app
var admin = require('firebase-admin');
var app = admin.initializeApp({
  credential: admin.credential.cert('/path/to/serviceAccountKey.json')
});

Java

FileInputStream serviceAccount = new FileInputStream("path/to/serviceAccountKey.json");

FirebaseOptions options = FirebaseOptions.builder()
    .setCredentials(GoogleCredentials.fromStream(serviceAccount))
    .setDatabaseUrl("https://<DATABASE_NAME>.firebaseio.com/")
    .build();

FirebaseApp.initializeApp(options);
FirebaseAppSnippets.java

Python

import firebase_admin
from firebase_admin import credentials
from firebase_admin import exceptions

cred = credentials.Certificate('path/to/serviceAccountKey.json')
default_app = firebase_admin.initialize_app(cred)
index.py

Go

opt := option.WithCredentialsFile("path/to/serviceAccountKey.json")
app, err := firebase.NewApp(context.Background(), nil, opt)
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("error initializing app: %v\n", err)
}
init.go

C#

FirebaseApp.Create(new AppOptions()
{
    Credential = GoogleCredential.FromFile("path/to/serviceAccountKey.json"),
});

FirebaseAppSnippets.cs

Initializing multiple apps

Typically, you'll only want to initialize a single, default app. However, you can also create multiple app instances, each with its own configuration options and authentication state.

Node.js

// Initialize the default app
admin.initializeApp(defaultAppConfig);

// Initialize another app with a different config
var otherApp = admin.initializeApp(otherAppConfig, 'other');

console.log(admin.app().name);  // '[DEFAULT]'
console.log(otherApp.name);     // 'other'

// Use the shorthand notation to retrieve the default app's services
var defaultAuth = admin.auth();

Java

// Initialize the default app
FirebaseApp defaultApp = FirebaseApp.initializeApp(defaultOptions);

// Initialize another app with a different config
FirebaseApp otherApp = FirebaseApp.initializeApp(otherAppConfig, "other");

System.out.println(defaultApp.getName());  // "[DEFAULT]"
System.out.println(otherApp.getName());    // "other"

// Use the shorthand notation to retrieve the default app's services
FirebaseAuth defaultAuth = FirebaseAuth.getInstance();
FirebaseDatabase defaultDatabase = FirebaseDatabase.getInstance();

// Use the otherApp variable to retrieve the other app's services
FirebaseAuth otherAuth = FirebaseAuth.getInstance(otherApp);
FirebaseDatabase otherDatabase = FirebaseDatabase.getInstance(otherApp);
FirebaseAppSnippets.java

Python

# Initialize the default app
default_app = firebase_admin.initialize_app(cred)

#  Initialize another app with a different config
other_app = firebase_admin.initialize_app(cred, name='other')

print(default_app.name)    # "[DEFAULT]"
print(other_app.name)      # "other"

# Retrieve default services via the auth package...
# auth.create_custom_token(...)

# Use the `app` argument to retrieve the other app's services
# auth.create_custom_token(..., app=other_app)
index.py

Go

// Initialize the default app
defaultApp, err := firebase.NewApp(context.Background(), nil)
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("error initializing app: %v\n", err)
}

// Initialize another app with a different config
opt := option.WithCredentialsFile("service-account-other.json")
otherApp, err := firebase.NewApp(context.Background(), nil, opt)
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("error initializing app: %v\n", err)
}

// Access Auth service from default app
defaultClient, err := defaultApp.Auth(context.Background())
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("error getting Auth client: %v\n", err)
}

// Access auth service from other app
otherClient, err := otherApp.Auth(context.Background())
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("error getting Auth client: %v\n", err)
}
init.go

C#

// Initialize the default app
var defaultApp = FirebaseApp.Create(defaultOptions);

// Initialize another app with a different config
var otherApp = FirebaseApp.Create(otherAppConfig, "other");

Console.WriteLine(defaultApp.Name); // "[DEFAULT]"
Console.WriteLine(otherApp.Name); // "other"

// Use the shorthand notation to retrieve the default app's services
var defaultAuth = FirebaseAuth.DefaultInstance;

// Use the otherApp variable to retrieve the other app's services
var otherAuth = FirebaseAuth.GetAuth(otherApp);

FirebaseAppSnippets.cs

Setting scopes

If you're using a Compute Engine VM with Google Application Default Credentials for authentication, you''ll need to set the right access scopes. Identity Platform requires the userinfo.email and cloud-platform access scopes.

To check your existing access scopes, run the following:

gcloud compute instances describe [INSTANCE-NAME] --format json

The command will return information about the service account. For example:

"serviceAccounts": [
 {
  "email": "example.gserviceaccount.com",
  "scopes": [
   "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform",
   "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email"
   ]
  }
]

To update access scopes, stop the VM, then run the following:


gcloud compute instances set-service-account [INSTANCE-NAME] \
  --service-account "your.gserviceaccount.com" \
  --scopes ""https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email"

What's next